Yannis Pappas says Chappelle, Maron and Handler swing at ghosts
One reply about Bill Maher turned into a full case against comedians playing moral referee.
A clip went around of Dave Chappelle saying "fuck Bill Maher" in his special, and Yannis Pappas answered it twice. First with a short reply, then with a longer post that names Marc Maron, Chelsea Handler, Shane Gillis, Tony Hinchcliffe and Theo Von.
The argument is the same each time. Pappas says Maher actually defended the comedians who performed in Saudi Arabia, calling it progress, and never brought up Saudi or the journalists Israel killed. What Maher did do, per Pappas, was joke about Chappelle's line that it is easier to talk there than in America, with "Yeah, do your Muhammad bit, Dave." So Chappelle, he says, is hitting the whole cloud of criticism around the festival and using the one guy who backed him as the punching bag.
Maron, Handler, and the ghosts
Then he widens it. Pappas says Marc Maron's bit imagining Theo Von interviewing Hitler is an attack on Von for humanizing Trump, but Trump had already been welcomed onto Saturday Night Live and Fallon, and that part did not make the special. He adds that Von publicly said he was willing to have Kamala Harris on. His verdict is that the Hitler bit may work as comedy while the moral indictment underneath it is swinging at a ghost.
The Chelsea Handler piece is the cleanest factual claim in the post. Pappas says Handler went after Shane Gillis and Tony Hinchcliffe for supposedly going to Saudi Arabia, when Gillis publicly declined and Hinchcliffe was not there. He calls that condemnation based on a false premise rather than criticism.
The line he actually cares about
Pappas is careful to say he has no problem with comics ripping comics. That part he calls tradition. What he objects to is the layer on top, the self-appointed moral authority and what he describes as distorting reality to make the prosecution work. His read is that the comedians who are supposed to see through the digital culture war have been pulled into it, flattening people into symbols and leaving out the inconvenient bits.
His closing line is the sharpest thing in the whole thread. "The joke is no longer exposing the distortion. The joke is serving it."
The joke is no longer exposing the distortion. The joke is serving it.
What makes this different from the usual round of comics dunking on comics is that Pappas is making claims that can be checked, about who said what and who went where. He is not calling anyone unfunny. He is saying the facts under the jokes are wrong, which is a much harder thing to wave off, and a much harder thing for anyone he named to answer with a bit.
Sad to see comedians dragged into the culture war, attack each other but swing at ghosts.